


































ECHOES OF THE 


Emancipation Proclamation 

-BY- 

REV. WILLIAM B REED, B. D. 

M 

Pastor First Baptist Church 
Madison, New Jersey 


COPYRIGHT DEC, 31, 1908 
BY REV. WILLIAM B. REED. B. D. 


This is the third of the Series of Addresses 
by the writer on the race question 


Published by 

W. B. REED, MADISON, N. J. 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

fEB 6 1909 

it Copyrliynt Entry _ 

lk*.3l,nO0 

CLASS <*- XXc. No, 

7.2. G, 52.1 

copy a. 






Abraham 


Emancipation 



Lincoln’s 

Proclamation 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen— 

Forty-six years have come and gone since the nation decreed 
this should he a land of the free and all should be governed 
alike by an impartial constitution. How well this decree has been 
observed by the successors of Lincoln and Grant, an almost un¬ 
interrupted republican rule shall be the gist of my efforts to¬ 
night, in this the third chapter of the series, I am endeavoring to 
publish on the race question. I write without prejudice to any 
race, as such, but in the light of righteousness as recorded in the 
Holy Writ and as reflected in Christian and humane civilization, 
in defense of a wronged yet obedient people. It is hoped that 
none who read these booklets will mistake energy and frank¬ 
ness for racial feeling and jrejudice. The thousands who have 
read my other booklets will attest the inference here made. 

We are here tonight as on former occasions, to celebrate 
the issuing of the greatest war measure known to human history. 
Great because of the long conflict between an intelligent and 
Christian people of the North, and a brutish people of the 
South. Great because right triumphed over wrong and great 












because the Union had to be baptized in blood and the nation go 
in mourning for its establishment. 

When I look back over the past, many things rise before me, 
of which I would like to speak, likewise of the present, but 
time will not allow me now; so I shall touch upon a few things 
that are vital to us as a race. I wish to talk of the burdens 
that have been peculiarly put upon our shoulders—grievous 
burdens, though we have borne them with patience and hope. 

It is fitting that I should write on those things that cause 
us so much grief and suffering. Difficulties no white person has 
ever known; only those whom the Eternal God made negroes can 
truly tell of the dismal night through which our pathway leads. Yet, 
we have been moving onward and upward. 

The nation ought to be proud of her colored citizens—a 
people who came with the founders of the country; labored with 
the “Fathers;” fell w r ith her soldiers and continuing with her 
posterity. For almost three centuries we can give a clear account 
of our stewardship without revealing one disgrace. 

I am glad to see some of our white friends here tonight; 
your fathers were with our fathers in Ante-Belum days, and you 
are with us now. We hope not to see the day when the good 
white people will not be with us for right and justice. 

In a few "weeks from! now, the white people of the North, 
East and West and the colored people of everywhere in the 
Union will celebrate the one hundredth birthday anniversary of 
Abraham Lincoln. Those of us who shall be blessed to see that 
day may count it a special favor of God to be living at that time. 
When this country shall be decked with flags from ocean to ocean, 
in celebration of his two hundredth anniversary, we will be gone; 
so it behooves us to make this the greatest patriotic day of our 
National life. One hundred years ago this great friend of 
humanity was born, in a log cabin, in wild Kentucky. His parents 
were illiterate, poor and unknown; and no one ever dreamed of 
Abe being anything. One of the brightest stars in his memorial 
sky is, he had a heart to treat even a black man right. From 
that cabin and with the same heart, he went to the empire throne 
of the world. All men honor him for the great soul he had, 
and the manly deeds he performed. He was impartial in his treat¬ 
ment to all. 


4 


Many men have risen high in the ruling councils of the 
nation, exerted their controlling influence in almost every path¬ 
way of human activity, but because of the lack of that broadness 
of soul to hear the voice of the lowly, without regard to position, 
race or color, who cry “Master carest thou not that we perish,” 
their influence died while they lived and they w r ere forgotten by 
the succeeding generation. But when a man rises to true 
eminence, he rises with that broadness of heart, that takes hu¬ 
manity with him. 

Such was the soul of the now living Abraham Lincoln— 
a man who could say from the lowest depths of his good heart, 
that he had malice for none. Be thou contented friend, for thou 
couldst not be otherwise, midst the jeweled walls of jasper be¬ 
yond the pearly gates. We weep with joy, in memory of you this 
day. Your chair is vacant; statesmanship like unto yourself is 
waning. Since Sumner, Garrison and McKinley brought to you 
such glowing news, the principles for which you died, have been 
assailed by men within the fold; but your wcrk shall stand. 
Stand, though false friends may rise to power; stand, though 
the evil spirit that oppressed our men, ■> outraged our women 
and snatched suckling babes from their mothers’ breasts, for two 
hundred and fifty years, seems to rise to its former glory, your 
work shall stand. 

Coming back to my efforts as stated in the offset, I begin 
my appeal with the energy and frankness of which I also spoke. 
In this appeal I shall deal principally with the nullification of 
the War Amendment, by the same set of men, who defied the 
Union, bled and died to keep them from the statute books, and 
its effect. When I say nullification I do not mean that it was 
legally done, but illegally done as every one knows, upon a hy¬ 
pothesis which they will operate until these affected props are 
knocked from beneath. 

In dealing with this subject the same as the others of my 
series, I shall keep three things prominently before you: (1) 
Southern cowardice. (2) Conniving politicians of the North. (3) 
The ill-treated Negro race. 

Of these three the first especially deserves to be exposed to 
public scorn; which I hope to do by the time this series is 
closed. The second deserves a stay at home; and the third deserves 


5 



sympathy and a square deal, from all good people. In my en¬ 
deavor to keep these three things before you, I shall ask all 
who may read these pages to weigh facts and arguments as to 
Southern cowardice. 

Webster defines cowardice as ‘‘want of courage to face dan¬ 
ger.” He quotes Milton who writes of “The cowardice of doing 
wrong.” Upon these two definitions I shall rest my arguments: “The 
want of courage to face danger,” and “the cowardice of doing 
wrong.” 

With an unbias man of even a limited degree of intelligence, 
the South is condemned to cowardice already. For instance, 
a mob of three hundred men loaded down with repeating rifles 
and brick bats have to organize to take one chained and un¬ 
armed Negro; while it may be doubted not a single man of the 
mob would ordinarily meet the Negro, in a fair combat, armed 
or unarmed, for a life or death struggle. 

If a white Southerner is forced into fair combat with a 
colored man, and the latter gets the better of the conflict, the 
white man then goes for a mob. This phase of the question of 
cowardice, will be frequently brought to our notice; so I cannot 
dwell upon it here. What I have just stated, is a fact, universally 
known, but not universally announced as such. 

For the present let us look into the economical phase of the 
question. It must be admitted, that there are a very few white 
men writing against the denied rights of the struggling race— 
not even those we so loyally support in the political councils of 
the party of the great Emancipator. As I see it, Negroes must 
do their own writing—for a time at least. 

Another fact, I wish to bring to notice is, that murder 
is the next thing in order, when a white Southerner fails in an 
intellectual controversy. This is true between themselves. One 
of the Tillmans, of South Carolina, shot down the editor of one 
of the leading papers of the State, on the streets of the Capital; 
for the simple reason that his editorials were too spicy intellectually, 
in the side flanks of his unequal combatant. As usual, Tillman 
was acquitted. We will not give a multiplicity of such incident, for 
they are too numerous. But very recently, ex-Senator Carmack of 
Tennessee was murdered for the same offense, and the murderer 
will, of course, be acquitted. I shall cite one more intance of 


6 


white against white and pass on. In 1856 Senator Charles 
Sumner delivered his unanswerable speech on “The Crime Against 
Kansas.” While Senator Sumner was a statesman of the highest 
type, he was also one of the leading champions of the denied 
rights of the lowly. In this great speech—speaking for those 
who could not speak for themselves—he put the entire army of 
slave owners on the rack, and picked them to pieces. In the most 
terriffic of his thunder-bolts, he took special aim at Senator But¬ 
ler of South Carolina, and Senator Douglas of Illinois. I shall 
give just a short quotation from Senator Sumner’s speech, call¬ 
ing for tL. se two men, for special target practice. “Now for 
something in reference to what has fallen from Senators who have 
raised themselves to eminence on this floor in championship of 
human wrongs. I mean the Senator from South Carolina and 
the Senator from Illinois.” Yes, the championship of human 
wrongs. The South was that, up to that time; she was that 
then, and she is that today. This two days’ speech of Senator 
Sumner, filled with such awful truths, went to the hearts of the 
guilty and their sympathizers. The South was furious; because 
their deeds were evil and they liked darkness rather than light. 
Two days later Representative Preston S. Brooks of South Caro¬ 
lina “either volunteered or was selected,” to perform one of the 
most “cowardly and audacious assaults” in the history of the 
nation. Senate had adjourned and only a few gentlemen re¬ 
mained, and while Senator Sumner was busy at his desk, this Re¬ 
presentative from South Carolina sneaked upon Mr. Sumner and 
addressed him in these words: “I have read your speech twice 
over, carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina and Mr. Butler, 
who is a relative of mine.” The man in his seat w r as unarmed 
and in no position to defend himself. The South never strikes 
a man until he is down. To be exact: “While these words were 
passing from his lips he commenced a series of blows with 
a bludgeon, upon the Senator’s head, by which the latter was 
stunned, disabled and smitten down, bleeding and insensible, on 
the floor of the chamber.” Think of this coward and his act— 
think of such an act right in the Senate chamber; the place dedi¬ 
cated for the best purposes and highest calling of our nation. The 
place where our laws are made, and Constitution is supposed to 
be enforced and upheld. Think of such a law maker; but he 


7 


represents tlie ruling spirit of the South. Could any sane man call 
Brooks anything but a coward—afraid to face danger, physically 
or intellectually—could any call his act anything but the lowest 
act of cowardice? 

Reason might answer the charge, that he represents 
the ruling South; but for the sake of the scrupulous 
and bias I shall let history answer. When Brooks committed this 
crime of crimes, the democrats were greatly in the majority in 
both houses of Congress. The few struggling and manly re¬ 
publicans asked for the expulsion of this sneaking self-exalted 
hero, but the request was indignantly denied. “It shows Mr. 
Brooks as only a fit representative of the dominating influences 
of the slave-holding states, where not only did their leading public 
men and presses endorse the deed as their own, and defend it 
by voice and vote, but the people generally seemed ready to 
vie with each other in their professed admiration of his course; 
so that the bludgeon became the weapon of honor, the bully 
the hero of the hour.” I might give you pages of quotations, but 
space does not permit. However, the historian says: “The stu¬ 
dents and officers of the University of Virginia also voted him a 
cane, on which the leading Democratic organ of the South re¬ 
marked approvingly: ‘The chivalry of the South, it seems, has 
been thoroughly aroused.’ ” 

Dinners were given in honor of Mr. Brooks and leading states¬ 
men of the South invited to speak words of praise to his heroic 
deed. I make one more quotation from this author to show the 
true spirit of republicanism, the principles for which Lincoln 
died, the principles for which the Civil War was fought and a 
mighty victory won, and the principles the Negroes have stood 
by for forty years; and will continue to stand by until God, the 
righteous Judge, shall do away with darkness in one part of His 
creation, and light in the other—when some shall go to see 
Brooks and some shall go to see Sumner. 

Senator Burlingame, speaking for a party weak in numbers, 
but strong in principles, looked his smiling foes in the face and 
said: “I denouce it (Brooks’s act) in the name of the Constitution 
it violates. I denouce it in the name of the sovereignty of Massa¬ 
chusetts, which was stricken down by the blow. I denouce it in the 
name of humanity. I denounce it in the name of civilization. 


8 




which it outraged. I denounce it in the name of that fair play 
which bullies and prize-fighters respect. The Senator from Massa¬ 
chusetts sat in the silence of the Senate Chamber, engaged in the 
employments appertaining to his office, when a member from 
the House, who had taken an oath to sustain the Constitution, stole 
into the Senate, a place which had hitherto been held sacred 
against violence, and smote him as Cain smote his brother.” The 
above quotations are taken from the Life and Public Services 
-of Charles Sumner, by C. Edward Lester. 

May I say before leaving this Southern hero that af¬ 
ter his party in Congress and the South vindicated him for 

the sake of further notoriety he resigned his seat in Con¬ 

gress, went back to Great South Carolina, that the peo¬ 
ple of his State might fall at his feet and hail him the 

greatest champion of Southern manhood, and re-elect him to 
Congress—which was done in two weeks’ time. May I also call 
your attention to Mr. Heflin of Alabama, the present law breaker 
who is in that “sacred” hall to make laws for the people of 
this great nation to obey? In the recent election he was re-elected 
by his constitutents to continue his seat in Congress. Does any man 
doubt that the South is proud of Heflin for his cowardly act? 
They think him great. He shot an unarmed colored man in 
a public street car in the nation’s capital—destroyed the peace 
and comfort of other passengers while another was shot with 
wild bullets. He also recommended in one of his campaigns, 
bomb-throwing at President Roosevelt for exercising his personal 
liberty in entertaining one of the foremost citizens of the world. 

Friends of humanity, upholders of law and order, observers 
of both right and wrong, you are called upon by ten million 
loyal and law-abiding citizens to recognize facts wherever you 
see them. It does not matter on what garment you see the 
stain, cowardice is but cowardice the world over. 

Are there any Burlingames in that “sacred” hall today who 
will speak in the name of the Constitution, who will speak in 
defense of humanity, who will ^mand fair play in the name 
of civilization; who will speak in the name of the fathers of our 
freedom, yes, and in the name of God? And in His Great Name, 
speak for justice and fair play for every man in the land? That 
is all the colored people of this Union want. Could an enemy 


9 


ask for more, or a friend mss? Have all the children of the Bur- 
lingames passed away; is the spirit of Sumner entirely g*one and 
the principles of Lincoln tnprked for slaughter? 

Shall a revolting South, while civilization rises and the 
church of Christ advances, make the great North fall at her feet 
and denounce the principles of their fathers; will you acknowledge 
that the Civil War was a failure and the soldiers of the 'Union 
Army died in vain? If these are not all dead, answer our cries, 
for we are heavy laden with wrongs. I declare unto you that the 
South is not afraid of the ignorant Negro, as they say in their sham 
cry of Negro rule. They are afraid of the intelligent, self-sacri¬ 
ficing and educated Negro. They are afraid of the Negro who is 
prepared to meet them in debate, and will so meet them, if you 

will stop the mob, on their merits. I again declare unto you, 

that the South is not willing to meet the Negro, man for man, 
on his merits in any way. I further declare unto you, that 
this is cowardice. It is cowardice in its blackest form. 

I shall now proceed to discuss the Spartan heroes of the 
South as to their political dealing with the colored citizens there¬ 
of. This has become an old and familiar subject. I shall state 
(as many writers have stated) how cowardly the South has dealt 

with the colored race, politically. If any man says the South 

has not acted cowardly, their own actions show the untruth of 
it, and history brands him a pitiful conniver. Any man who re¬ 
fuses to meet an issue fairly and squarely on its merits; any man 
who refuses a black man to go through an examination before 
reaching the ballot box, and removes such restrictions from the 
white naan; any man who opens the primary, only for the white 
voter, to the bold and public exclusion of the black voter, must 
be considered, if not announced by all decent people a coward. 
This is a historical fact concerning the South. The Southern 
side of the national Congress is packed with such cowards; and 
records defy contradiction; men charged to the brim with vitupera¬ 
tion; eyes quivering like so many warring stars—yet they are 
there on blank ballots. Think of the bold affrontery to a representa¬ 
tive government. There is not a republican representative in all 
Washington, there is not an intelligent man in all the North, that 
does not know that a great number of these Southern representa¬ 
tives ought to be back in the wilderness from whence they came. 


10 


The same is true with Southern State Legislatures, who send such 
ridiculous characters to the United States Senate. 

I see before the American Negro a great intellectual and 
political battle to be fought; and in this battle the Negro must fire 
a onspicuous gun. The South has never from the heart accepted 
what the Civil War decreed; and when the South becomes friendly 
with a republican president or representative it is because such 
president or representative is winking at the South’s violation of 
the War Amendments. The fact that the garments of the highest 
Court in the land are still tainted with racial prejudice, and the 
present occupancy of the White House is willing that these defiant 
representatives should retain their unworthy seats, and all the 
courts of the South are against us, however just our claim, makes 
the battle all the more intricate. But we are not yet discouraged. 
We mean to fight until our citizenship shall mean to us, just what 
it means to other people. 

In speaking to the colored citizens at Washington on last 
Thanksgiving, our President said: ’ But of one thing we can rest 
assured, and that is that the only way in which to bring nearer 
the time when there shall be even an approximately fair solu¬ 
tion of the problem is to treat each man on his merits as a 
man. He should not be treated badly because he happens to be 
of a given color, nor should be receive immunity for misconduct 
because he happens to be of a given color.” My dear President, 
ten million humble citizens, loyal members of your party, beg of 
you that extent of fair play. To treat each man on his merits 
as a man, is the long and fainting cry of our souls. It is the 
language of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which 
you and Congress have the power to enforce. 

We ask no immunity because w r e are colored. Slavery was 
not fought simply because the victims were colored, but because 
slavery itself was a sin, and a helpless people—the creatures of 
God’s hand were imposed upon. We do not ask favors because 
we are colored, but we do ask you in the name of fair play, not 
to deny us our rights because we are colored. We ask you in 
the name of your high office to recognize “misconduct” regard¬ 
less of color, and to brand men who seek “immunity” because they 
are white. We accept your kind and valuable proposition, and 
shall proceed to remind you that Southerners are seeking immuni- 


11 


ty because they are white. 

Coming back to the Spartan heroes of the South I am im¬ 
pelled for the sake of a literal translation of that phrase, and a 
fair vindication of the charge that the South is seeking immunity 
because they are white, to go into the defective history of Southern 
Constitutional Conventions, and how the amendments adopted by 
the conventions are operated according to color. We regret be¬ 
yond expression that the President has paid such little attention 
to the monstrous wrongs committed against our people, while 
he has studied those of other people all around the globe. We 
also regret that he does not know these amendments are not “en¬ 
forced without discrimination as to color.” In taking up this great 
question, I shall quote the President again. According to the news¬ 
papers the following is a letter written by Mr. Roosevelt to Mr. 
Wyndham R. Meredith, a Virginia democrat, which was published 
since the recent election: “My Dear Mr. Meredith—I have your 
letter. I do not believe there is a single individual of any conse¬ 
quence who seriously dreams of cutting down Southern represen¬ 
tation, and I should have no hesitation in stating anywhere and 
at any time that so long as the election laws are constitutionally 
enforced without discrimination as to color the fear that Southern 
representation in Congress will be cut down is both idle and ab¬ 
surd. Faithfully yours. Theodore Roosevelt.” 

Now this is simply startling. One aim of my life is to be 
truthful, another is not to mis-accuse any one, while another is to 
do unto my fellowman as I would have him to do unto me; yet, 
I shall not give my feeble denial to the inference made in the 
President’s letter, but I shall let history speak, history, written 
by able and representative men. I shall let some of the leading 
magazines of the country deny it, and bear me out that these men 
are cowards. That they stoop to do things manly men never 
dreamed of; and that they are afraid to meet the colored man, man 
for man on “merits.” In order to do this, it will be necessary for 
me to quote at length several magazines, especially The Outlook, 
a journal, to whose official staff the President has been added, 
and will make his headquarters at its offices after March next. I 
cannot take up the conventions and amendments in detail, as it 
would take up a volume. I shall speak especially of Alabama, 
Louisiana and North Carolina. I shall not trouble South Carolina 


12 


—the proud producer of her Brooks and Tillmans, or the rest of 
the Southern States of secession fame. The three named will 
answer present for the others. 

Three facts are evident in these conventions. First, that 
disfranchisement only of the Negro was decided in the minds of 
the delegates before the conventions assembled for action. Second, 
that no Negro delegates were accorded membership of these con¬ 
ventions. Third, that the proceedings of these conventions were 
public and daring enough for everybody to know about them. In 
the action of these conventions, there is one known fact: That 
they violate the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, and the amendments are not “constitutionally en¬ 
forced,” as the President seems to think. 

“The Alabama Constitutional Convention, which is now in ses¬ 
sion, is composed of one hundred and fifty-five delegates. It will 
deal with a variety of questions, but two of these transcend all 
others in importance—tne disfranchisement of the negro, and 
the division of the public school money between the two races 
according to the amount of taxes which each pays.” 

These are the words of The Outlook. And these words bear 
up the three evident facts as stated above. There were 155 dele¬ 
gates in this convention, and all were white—not a single repre¬ 
sentative of the colored race; notwithstanding that there are almost 
as many colored people in Alabama as white. In this we see at 
least, the cowardice of doing wrong. Taxation without repre¬ 
sentation is as galling now to the weak colored race, as it was 
to the weak nation in days when it had to take orders from across 
the waters, and it is just as impossible to keep this weak race 
quiet under brutish laws, as it was to keep the weak nation 
under less severe laws of England. We implore you to deal with 
us as with other men—as men—and the knotty problem will pass 
away. Would this country have agreed to a diplomatic council 
of the nations to settle the question of indemnity between this 
country and Spain without a representative from this government, 
while Spain was ably represented? Let any American answer. We 
would have dyed the Atlantic Ocean in blood and sent a halo 
of smoke around the earth, rather than abide by such a barbarous 
decision, had it been done. We see the equivalent in this bias 
convention of Alabama. One hundred and fifty-five members com- 


13 


ing together to strike a foul blow at a people who made the 
State. A people who converted the vast wilderness into beautiful 
cotton fields. A people who unstopped the rivers, and made new 
lines for commerce. A people who built homes for all those dele¬ 
gates and their fathers to live in—must now be defrauded with¬ 
out one representative of seven hundred thousand of the State’s 
founders to speak in their interest. 

According to the Twentieth Century Encyclopaedia, we learn that 
“in 1890, the total population was 1,513,017, of whom 833,718 were 
white, and 679,299 colored. The total population, white and col¬ 
ored, was 1,828,697 in the census of 1900.” Remember, that these 
€79,299 colored people are citizens and the Federal Constitution 
has safeguarded their rights as citizens, and they should be heard. 

Say what you may, no State has a right to touch the rights 
of our citizenship. But the enactments of this convention were evil 
and wrong, with not one spark of right in its enforcement. Listen 
at President Roosevelt in his last Thanksgiving proclamation: “Let 
us, therefore, as a people, set our faces resolutely against evil 
and with broad charity, with kindness and good will toward all 
with all the strength that is given us for righteousness in 
public and in private life.” I wonder if the President was playing 
words or whether he spoke from the earnestness of his hear. 
The statement seems to run counter with his letter to Mr. Men 
dith. In that letter he seems doubtful whether any disfranchise¬ 
ment laws had been enacted against us according to color, while 
history, which is unmistakeably plain, says that such laws have 
been enacted, and that the operation of these reckless enactments 
is likewise as plain as the full moon on a cloudless night. I ask 
with all the strength of my humble soul, how can a “single in¬ 
dividual of any consequence,” acquiese with the enactment of 
this convention, which discriminates against a race according to 
color. All who respect the Constitution, which the enactment vio¬ 
lates, cannot respect the enactment which violates. This and the 
other Southern amendments were based, constructed and are 
operated according to color. 

I ask in all seriousness was it right for this convention to ex¬ 
clude the colored people of their share of representatives, when the 
State is so nearly balanced? No, not any more right than to break 
into the house of a lone and defenseless woman at midnight, and 

14 


i 


order her from home and city because her husband had evaded 
the mob. Why did they not invite or admit colored representatives? 
There can be but two answers: either it was sheer ignorance in 
not knowing the right from wrong, or it was cowardice; and since 
some of the foremost men of the white race were delegates to the 
convention, to my mind, it was the latter—cowardice of doing 
wrong. 

Mr. Max Bennett Thrasher, who represented The Outlook 
magazine during the session of the Alabama Constitutional Con¬ 
vention, calls things by their proper names; and “wayfaring men, 
though fools, shall not err therein.” No man can read the facts 
laid down by Mr. Thrasher, and gainsay it was a white man’s con¬ 
vention, whose purpose was to abridge the colored man’s rights, 
and not the white man’s. And as anxious as some of the politicians 
are to unite the North and South, they cannot do it by endorsing 
the present amendments of the South. If they do, they openly in¬ 
flict a great wrong on a weak and poor people—they do it by 
winking at the violation of the Federal Constitution. 

Mr. Thrasher says: “At the request of The Outlook I have 
interviewed several of the leading and representative members of 
the convention, and summarize here briefly their opinions on these 
questions.” Again I quote The Outlook, to make clear to you, that 
these delegates came together for the one thing: the disfranchise¬ 
ment of the colored race and not the white race. In the list 
of names—all of which I cannot give here—the first is the Chair¬ 
man of the Convention. 

“The Hon. John B. Knox, Chairman of the Convention: ‘No 
man can say yet what this convention will do. What we want to 
do is within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to 
establish white supremacy in the State of Alabama. But, if we 
would have w T hite supremacy we must establish it by law, not by 
force or fraud.... The delegates to this convention are pledged 
not to deprive any white man of the right to vote.’ ” I wish to 
call special attention to Mr. Knox’s conflicting assertions, and the 
unsound excuses he makes. Excuses for the thing not yet on the 
besmeared pages of Alabama’s history, though fixed in their hearts. 

In establishing white supremacy he says they would do it 
by “law, not by force or fraud,” and almost with the same breath, 
he says: “The delegates to this Convention are pledged not to 


15 


deprive any white man of the right to vote.” Any man who knows 
anything about this amendment knows that the entire superstruc¬ 
ture with its operation is a fraud, and could not stand the light of 
a real investigation. Would any sensible man suppose, that if 
Mr. Knox had been an honset man, he would have lost himself in 
rapture, at the very name of law, and then tell what he and his 
fellow-pledges had pledged themselves to do? In the light of my 
judgment they have pledged to deprive the Negro of his right to 
vote and grant the right to the white man, however ignorant he 
may be. Yet this is “law” and not “fraud.” The proverb still lives 
that “Whom the Gods would destroy they first made mad.” 

When a man has to prove his superiority over another by 
fraudulent methods he is unworthy the name of a man. It is 
cowardice to strike a man in the back—that is what this Conven¬ 
tion did. 

“Ex-Governor Thomas G. Jones of Montgomery, Governor of 
Alabama from 1890 to 1894: 

“We are surrounded by many difficulties, one of which was the 
pledge made by the Convention which nominated the great major¬ 
ity of the delegates that we would reform the suffrage in obedience 
to the Constitution of the United States and yet not disfranchise 
any white man except for crime.” This is indeed, interesting, es¬ 
pecially when the President does not seem to know that such 
has been done. Governor Jones says that they did not intend to 
disfranchise any white man. Can any honest man subscribe to 
this discrimination on account of color? Think of men, who de¬ 
light in being called “gentlemen,” stooping to such unmanly level 
of racial discrimination. Think of men, who court the flattery of 
being called the representatives of Southern chivalry, yet afraid of 
giving the colored man an equal chance in the race of life. This 
man was governor over more than half a million people whose 
rights he did not respect. He was a governor, who protected the 
rights only of white men; and as a delegate in this Convention he 
does not hesitate to tell it to the world. He says they would only 
“disfranchise white men for crime.” My friends, they do not even 
do that, for white men do almost anything in that Commonwealth 
without molestation. Think of an ex-governor, of one of the 
States of this Union, committing himself as a party, to such a wan¬ 
ton agreement. Think of this Convention almost to the man coming 


16 


together upon such preconcerted plans. Does any Christian, does 
any fair minded man, does any honest citizen of this country, 
see one thing so far, worthy of praise, or of the name of manly 
actions? 

Mine to-night is not a plea for sympathy, not for favors, but 
for fair play, for an equal chance and for the rights and privileges 
accorded us by the Constitution of. the United States. If the spirit 
of Lincoln rules, we will get it; but if the spirit that comes from 
secession shame shall rule, we will not get it. 

The President-elect a few nights ago, told the North Carolina 
Society, and the nation, that the cause that brought about the 
Civil War ought to be forgotten. If Mr. Taft’s father was a real 
abolitionist and heard such unbecoming words coming from the lips 
(I hope not the heart), of his illustrious son, surely there must 
have been w r eeping some where around the beautiful gates. The 
greatest cause ever espoused by Christian civilization must be for¬ 
gotten; blot out the memory of the monstrous wrongs of the 
slave oligarchy, and think no more of the rebellion of ’61. That 
the Grand Army of the Republic dissolve and the veterans of 
the Union Army and victory cease their re-union. Let the monu : 
ments of Lincoln come down, and national cemeteries be despoiled. 
Ah, I voted for Mr. Taft, while thousands of his now admirers 
voted against him. I was with him in heart before the election. 
But ten millions of his fellow-citizens at least will not forget 
these. And there are millions of whites, who will pass these 
cherished memories to their children. Ask us not to forget these 
while the men to whom you spoke, directly, are fostering Ante- 
Belum principles under new names. A fair chance is all we 
want, and if the Fifteenth Amendment is enforced, it will be the 
only right step in that direction. There is but one ultimatum; 
the Federal Government must rule the South, or the South will 
again rule the Federal Government. 

Mr. Thrasher quotes a few who are less bitter in their at¬ 
tacks on the Negro. The most noticeable is Gen. Oates. “Gen. Wm. 
C. Oates, member of Congress 1881-1895, and Governor of Ala¬ 
bama 1895-6: 

‘I am in favor of letting every one of intelligence—not 

necessarily book-learning—and good character vote.We have 

extended a helping hand to them. I am opposed to drawing 


17 



it back. While this must be a white man’s government, the re¬ 
sponsibility is all the stronger upon the white man to see that the 
negro is treated rightly.’ ” 

I am not unmindful of the fact that there are many good 
men in the South, this was true in the dark days of slavery. 
Doubtless there are men in the South today, who are willing to give 
us a fairer deal than Mr. Oates was—as the latter declares this must 
be a white man’s government. We are willing for the majority 
to rule; but as much as we appreciate men like Mr. Oates, every 
one knows that such men are few, in comparison with the Knoxes 
and Joneses—the latter rule every time in dealing with the col¬ 
ored race. 

I would like to quote others, but space forbids. 1 think my 
contention has been fully substantiated—that the amendment of 
Alabama is founded upon color. But before leaving the writer, hear 
what he has to say of the then Senator Morgan, now gone to 
regions, his Maker only knows. 

“Senator John T. Morgan, although not a member of the Con¬ 
vention, has prepared and had presented a lengthy proposition on 
the suffrage question which contains this radical proposition; ‘Per¬ 
sons who are not citizens of the United States, or who are not 
descended from a father and mother of the white race, shall not 
be eligible to any office under the Constitution and laws of Ala¬ 
bama.’ ” These words were spoken by a man who was a law¬ 
maker in the United States Senate for many years—an octogenarian. 
A man who might have spent the time in drawing up this un¬ 
charitable “proposition,’’ more profitable, in praying that God might 
make his black heart, as white as some of the Negroes’, whom 
he had wronged. Is it not difficult to understand, how this highly 
respected Southern “gentleman” could be so neglectful of his soul, 
to stand in his grave up to his neck, and breathe such threatenings 
of damnation against a struggling people? But to the Senator, who 
is now gone to his long home, all power is in our Master’s hand— 
in heaven, in earth and hell. 

I leave Alabama’s Constitutional Convention with the opinion 
of the writer quoted above, under the caption of cowardice, ex¬ 
pressed in poetic muse: 

“Cowardice 
Note this my sin, 


18 


And hark thee, friend, 

Quit thou the cowards’ way! 

Here woes begin, 

And do not end, 

And fortune scorns to stay. 

In honor’s name, 

Good friend, beware! 

For he who foots this path, 

Consorts with shame, 

And grin* despair, 

And loses all he hath.” 

—The Outlook, Vol. 68: 437-9. June 22, ’01. 

We shall now go hurriedly into the Louisiana Constitutional 
Convention and the effect of its amendment. I can not give space 
for expostulations in this case as I did in the case of Alabama, T 
shall do but little more than give details as reported in The Out¬ 
look. 

One reason I prefer this magazine is, it is the favorite of 
Mr. Roosevelt, who likes it—not for any stock, which the Sandard 
Oil interests may have in it—but for the general policy of the 
paper. 

I pointed out in the proceedings of the Alabama Convention, 
that disfranchisement of the Negro was decided upon, in the minds 
of the delegates, before the Convention assembled for action; and 
that no Negro delegates were admitted; and that the details were 
public enough for every one to know about them; especially the 
readers of The Outlook. Yet, Mr. Roosevelt says that the South 
need not fear a reduction in Congress, as long as they do not dis¬ 
criminate on account of color. 

“In February, 1898, there assembled in Tulane Hall, New r Or¬ 
leans, a Constitutional Convention whose main object was to frame 
new suffrage requirements that would legally or quasi-legally elim¬ 
inate the negro from politics, and thus obviate the necessity of 
a continued use of ‘shotgun tactics’ to accomplish that end. Owing 
to the fact that the Convention wished to disfranchise the blacks 
alone....the system finally adopted is a complicated one....‘No 
male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any date prior 
thereto, etitled to vote under the Constitution or statutes of any 
States of the United States wherein he then resided, and no son 


19 


or grandson of any such person not less than twenty-one years of 
age at the adoption of this Constitution, and no person of foreign 
birth who was naturalized prior to the first day of January, 
IS68. shall be denied the right to register and vote in this 
State by reason of his failure to possess the educational or 
property qualification.’ ” No one can read this straight-forward 
statement carefully, without understanding the principle of the 
people composing this Convention without seeing the cowardice of 
having done, and still doing wrong. Think of a people, whom 
Mr. Taft says represent the purest blood of the nation, skulking 
from qualifications, which the Negro is required to possess. They 
made it possible for almost all the whites to vote; while on the 
other hand they made it possible for almpst all the colored peo¬ 
ple to be denied registration. Is there anything in all history 
more daring? Would it not have seemed unmanly on the part of 
Goliath, had he stolen up behind little David, and struck him un¬ 
protected, in the back? The thing that is beautiful about this con¬ 
test is, the great and the small had equal chance to fight for the 
rights of their people. 

Louisiana most cowardly struck the colored citizens in the 
back, while unprotected. “The ‘naturalization’ and ‘grandfathers’ 
clauses furnish loop-holes for practically all the poor and illiterate 
whites, while since in none but a very few States were negroes 
entitled to vote on January 1, 1867.” I am not writing with 
prejudiced feelings, but I am after the real facts. I wish to un¬ 
mask the falsehood about no discrimination on account of color. 
I want to give the people in authority the pleasure of finding some¬ 
thing else to say. 

“On January 1, 1897, the total number of registered voters 
throughout the State (under Act 123 of 1880) was as follows (fig¬ 
ures incomplete): Whites, 164,088; Negroes, 130,344; Literate 
Whites, 133,608; Whites who made their X mark, 28,371; Literate 
negroes, 33,803; Negroes who made their X mark, 94,498. 

The registration for the election of 1900 under the Constitu¬ 
tion of 1898 was as follows: 


Whites .. 125,437 

Negroes .. 5,320 

Registration under ‘grandfathers’ and ‘naturalization’ 

clauses .. 29,187 


20 





Whites coming in under educational Qualifications. 86,157 

Whites coming in under property qualifications. 10,793 

Negroes coming in under educational qualifications. 4,327 

Negroes coming in under property qualifications. 916 


r lne registration officers have one education standard for the 
negro and another for the white.”—The Outlook, V. 71; 163-6. May 
17, ’02. 

I am sure The Outlook has stated matters regarding this 1 
Convention and the effect of the amendment plainly enough for 
every one. No man who wants to see, cannot fail to see the 
evil it hurls against the colored race, the injustice of its formation, 
the robbery and the wickedness of its operation. Can the great 
American people not afford to treat the weak and offenseless colored 
race with justice? Examine the figures above and see how the 
so-called Christian people of Louisiana have wronged a people, who 
are trying to rise honestly from the toil of their hands, and the 
working of their brain. The record of Louisiana is on high. God 
never smiles upon a people, guilty of such woeful crimes. Slavery 
fell and this miserable amendment must follow in its wake. The 
Negroes of this country do not want a compromise; they want 
just what other men want—no more and no less. 

No man will ever be able to tell all the wrongs these amend¬ 
ments are inflicting, directly and directly, upon my people. 

The ballot is the most potent weapon any people can hope to 
have; take it away and they are truly disarmed. They have no 
prestige in the State; no voice in the government and no appeal 
in the courts. Our people are subjected to insults, cruelties and 
assaults from every Negro hater in the land. Aside from the 
general political wrongs, .there are three great and grievious 
wrongs, as an outcome of a people being politically disarmed— 
though temporarily: First, the insults to which our women are 
subjected. Second, the cruelty colored men undergo from the 
hands of these disfranchisers and their sympathizers. Third, the 
unpleasantness forced upon us by public carriers. The remaining 
chapters of my series will be given principally to these wrongs. 
I cannot resist, however, the temptation to speak of the third to¬ 
night hurriedly. 

The condonation of the President to the savage wrongs of the 
South has done the colored race an inestimable injury. His failure to 


21 






ask for legislation, on the investigation of disfranchisement laws, or 
reduction of Southern representation, has emboldened negro-haters 
and made them excessive in their mistreatment of the colored man. 
His announcement that there was no law against Jimj Crow cars was 
,a hard blow to a people whose hearts went out to him. 

The colored race .will no more submit to Jim Crow law than 
.disfranchisement, its elder brother. And the operation of this in¬ 
human rule will be an imposition, and not an accepted law with the 
■entire race. 

It is not the principle of the Republican party to impose on the 
'colored man. If the President knew how respectable people of our 
race are treated, on trains and steamboats, etc., I believe he would 
have remained silent rather than fostered this unholy cause. The 
Fourteenth Amendment says: “No State shall make or enforce any 
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of 
the United States.” Of all the races of the Union, Jim Crow laws 
abridge only the privileges of the colored race. In the South we 
are not privileged to dining cars, railroad restaurants, sleeping cars, 
decent coaches or waiting rooms. The white passengers have all 
the necessary accommodations, and are well treated, while the col¬ 
ored passengers have none of them, but they pay the same fare. No 
accommodations, save, for the most part, a few uncared-for seats 
in a baggage car, which is constantly occupied by trainmen, and 
often by section men. In these few exiled seats there are two double 
seats, which are occupied by conductor and newsboy, who have the 
boldness to ask passengers out of them. 

If the President had to ride some night on the Norfolk and 
Western road, going west from Norfolk, in the Jim Crow car, he 
would have a different idea of this mean system. I speak of this 
road because the cars for colored people are most miserable. On 
this road they have, in Virginia, what is considered a very fine train 
called the Cannon Ball. On this train care is taken of the colored 
passengers. They ride in the middle of one coach with smoking 
rooms at each end of the car. 

In the advertising literature of the Southern Railroad I quote 
the advertisement for one train, issue of April 12, 1908: 

“New r York and Memphis Limited 4 7. One car between Mem¬ 
phis and New York. One car (first-class coach) between Memphis 
and Washington. One car (baggage car and coach) between Mem- 


22 


phis and Washington. One car (dining) between Chattannoga and 
E. Radford, Va.” 

Three things I wish to especially point out are: First, it is afi 
insterstate carrier using discrimination against one passenger for 
another. Second, the company advertises “first-class coach” for 
white passengers and “baggage” car for colored passengers. Third, 
that Pullman and dining car privileges are denied colored passen¬ 
gers, who pay the same for transportation as white passengers, who 
are not denied these privileges. “Baggage car and coach” are 
smooth names for Jim Crow—a car divided, one-half for baggage 
and one-half for passengers. In the half for passengers a part of it- 
is cut off for smoking; the baggagemen make it their business to* 
come out in shirt-sleeves and overalls, to lounge with the conductor 
and newsboy, and often crowd out the passengers. This is a con¬ 
dition that only colored people can truly know. To be huddled up 
in a box like that for a thousand miles, through hot and dusty re¬ 
gions, with no provision for eating or sleeping if desired, is a sad 
and savage state of affairs. This is only one of the Jim Crow hor¬ 
rors. We do not want equivalent, but equality, which means no 
Jim Crow, but every man travel on his “merits as a man.” I leave 
the Southern Railroad for the present with a quotation taken from 
my own diary, under date September 28, 1908: “Harrisonburg, 
Va. Left Newark, N. J., 12:47 A. M. Left Washington, D. C., by 
B. & O. road 9:10. Changed at Harpers Ferry. ‘Colored’ written 
outside B. & O. baggage car. Took Southern Ry. at Strasburg. The 
colored box like a hog-pen, etc.” My friends, this car was a disgrace 
to the age in which we live—the most filthy I have yet seen. The 
fat, indolent conductor and sore-armed newsboy evidently had eaten 
fruit and chewed tobacco alternately since leaving Washington. 
Trash and spittle covered the floor from one end of the car to the 
other; the car was infested with flies and had a sickening odor. 
This is a faint description; but the car came out of the Union Depot 
of the Capital City. 

Since the courts. Interstate Commerce Commissioners and the 
White House say amen to these terrible conditions, we must now 
appeal to Congress, to the consciences of good citizens and to God. 

The Clyde Steamship Company, plying the Atlantic Ocean from 
New York City to Jacksonville, Fla., makes no attempt at prepara¬ 
tion for colored passengers. If they wish to go in the storage to* 


23 


spend about three days of sea voyage on boxes, etc., they may do 
so; this is common with Southern steamers, but this line runs into 
New York, where the civil rights bill stands an honor to the man¬ 
hood of New York. Florida has a half million of people, nearly 
equally divided between the races; and nearly a quarter of a million 
of people are not privileged to this interstate carrier. The colored 
people of New York, New Jersey and New England are also denied 
all privileges on this common carrier. We ask for relief, and relief 
is the ballot. Let the negro say who is to represent him in Congress, 
and Jim Crow will fade away. 

I advance *to say that if that “first-class coach” was two and a 
half cents per mile, and the “baggage” and passenger coach com¬ 
bined called for two cents per mile, there would be more white peo¬ 
ple in the “baggage” (Jim Crow) car than colored. 

In Lynchburg, Va., they have white teachers in the colored high 
school; and recently a white lady was appointed principal of the 
colored grammar school. These teachers can stay in class room 
with colored children all day, for money, but cannot ride with them 
on the street cars. The South does so many things in the dark, 
which negroes must bring to light. This is a perilous stand, how¬ 
ever, for those of us who undertake it, because the South has not 
yet reached that degree of Northern civilization to admit freedom 
of speech. 

Mr. Roosevelt says that few men of consequence are asking for 
reduction of Southern representation in Congress. Can any fair- 
minded man read the aftermath of the Constitutional amendment 
of Louisiana, as given above, and agree with Mr. Roosevelt? Do not 
see us as black men, not as complainers, not as cringers of immu¬ 
nities, but as men, as citizens asking for fair play—that’s all. 

When the President wrote this letter to this Southern Demo¬ 
crat, it seems strange that he should forget that the platform on 
which he was elected President of the United States called for the 
reduction of these men in Congress, who held their seats in the 
ashes of disfranchised citizens. Not only that, but the Republican 
Club of New York, of which the President is a member, took issue 
with the President on this statement. They not only voted resolu¬ 
tions to the contrary, but declared he had crossed “party lines.” 

I declare to the President, to Congress and to the citizens of this 
great country, that any men guilty of the crimes committed in this 


24 



f 


revised suffrage amendment of Louisiana, instead of being winked 
at, should be classed as Orchard and his band, as “undesirable 
citizens.” 

I shall next call to your notice the North Carolina suffrage 
amendment. Owing to the space given to the two former States, I 
can only say a few words about this amendment and its operation. 

What is true of the first two States I have mentioned is true of 
North Carolina, as concerning discrimination against color. The 
naturalization and grandfathers’ clauses, that made “loopholes” for 
the whites, is true here, only, in this case, it is more specific in its 
limitation. ] regret that I cannot give space at this juncture to the 
red-shirt campaign, that brought about the triumph of the Demo¬ 
cratic ticket at the time this amendment was adopted. But let the 
colored people hope that if North Carolina can stoop to the barbaric 
level of the Middle Ages, the good people of this nation will not 
stoop with her to indorse such an action. 

The negroes of America are willing to let intelligence and fair 
play solve the problem, providing this system operates upon all alike. 
Are the white men willing to meet this operation on impartial 
grounds? They are not; so we appeal to the Federal Government. 
Let the registering system be in the hands of the Federal Govern¬ 
ment; and give the colored man what he is numerically entitled to, 
as registrars. This is simply fair and just. 

Now as to the more specific limitation of the naturalization and 
grandfathers’ clauses comedy, the “Old North State” gave her white 
citizens eight years to indulge in the gross abridgment of human 
rights, from 1900 to 1908, without any hindrances on the part of 
the white registrars. After 1908 the amendment calls for an educa¬ 
tional qualification, all alike. But who dreams that under the pres¬ 
ent regime the colored man, after eight years of lawful fraud—ac¬ 
cording to the “Old North State”—will be dealt with fairly. I quote 
the following from the Hon. George H. White, the last negro Repre¬ 
sentative in the Federal Congress: “The registrar is invested with 
more discretionary power than any supreme judge of the bench of 
North Carolina. He is the sole judge of the qualifications of each 
voter.” The Independent, 52: 176-7, Jan. 18, ’00. 

The authority given these men cannot escape the notice of hon¬ 
est men. Neither can it be doubted that many of these registrars 
are uneducated men. Similar to this, there are the Southern street 


25 


car conductors, who are vested with police power, to order, club or 
send to jail any colored gentleman or lady who refuses to move 
about from seat to seat, according to his dictation. So far as I have 
been able to observe and learn, these men, for the most part, are 
ignorant. They do not know the common rules of the English 
language. So Mr. White tells us that these registrars are the “sole 
judges” of all the voters. When in Congress, Mr. White, who is an 
eminent lawyer, represented a Congressional district of North Caro¬ 
lina, and his words are generally accepted. He further states that 
if a colored man goes to register, whose head is gray, face wrinkled 
with age and form bending toward the sun setting of his earthly 
pilgrimage, and the registrars say they doubt that he is of age, there 
is no alternative, unless he can present recorded proof. We cannot 
hope for justice from these men. 

In speaking of the amendments of Alabama and Louisiana, I 
quoted the “Outlook,” not because it is friendly to the negro race, 
but because the President is familiar with the policy of the maga¬ 
zine, and yet did not know that these amendments were operated 
according to color. I shall not quote the “Outlook” further, but 
shall quote briefly from other journals. Some that champion not the 
cause of the negro, but are willing to admit that he is discriminated 
against on account of color: “North Carolina takes rank as the 
fourth State of the South to adopt a Constitutional amendment vir¬ 
tually depriving the great bulk of the negro citizens of their right 
to vote. . . . The intention of this is (grandfathers’ clause, 

etc.) to avoid the general disfranchisement of the white illiterates 
of the Old North Carolina stock, of whom there are a great many 
in the State, while disfranchising the illiterate negroes.” R. Rs. 
22:273-5 S. ’00. 

This journal also says: “We do not believe that the average 
Negro of the South is, at the present time, in any way benefited by 
his nominal right to take part in the business of politics and govern¬ 
ment. ... As regards politics, he should be contented if he 
sees ahead of him a reasonable chance for his children.” 

I shall not discuss this journal’s belief; I shall not lose time 
in dissenting from his reckless declaration that he should be con¬ 
tented if he sees better days coming. But, psychologically speaking, 
how could this journal ask us to be content, and at the same time 
admits that North Carolina discriminates “on account of color.” No 


26 


one could reasonably ask us to be contented at such injustice. 

The World’s Work, speaking in sentiment similar to the Re¬ 
view, in commenting on the decision of the Supreme Court, in these 
test cases of Alabama, says: “Enlightened public opinion in every 
part of the country is well nigh unanimous in favor of a frank re¬ 
striction of the suffrage in the Southern States made without refer¬ 
ence to race, but the rub comes at the ‘grandfathers’ clause,’ where¬ 
by illiterate whites are admitted to the franchise and illiterate 
blacks are excluded. In other words, the suffrage is really restricted 
on race lines.” World’s Work 6:3491-2, Je. ’03. 

No man speaks the truth who says these amendments do not 
discriminate on account of color. That infamous “grandfathers’ 
clause” has been dealt with sufficiently by other writers, for every 
intelligent man, interested in the question, to know the evil it has 
done the colored race. This evil cannot continue unnoticed, unre¬ 
strained by the Federal Government. Truly the World’s Work gives 
it a suitable name when it calls it a “rub.” 

I shall give one more reference, from the Pol. Sci. Q. In speak¬ 
ing on the Constitutional conventions of Alabama and Virginia, this 
paper says: “Looking first at the feature of the work of these con¬ 
ventions which attracted most public attention, we may examine the 
reason for negro disfranchisement as given by the delegates. The 
most fundamental argument was that drawn from the racial inferi¬ 
ority of the black man and his natural incapacity to perform political 
duties. This idea—or it might be better termed a feeling of in¬ 
stinct—found expression in words in both conventions, but was 
seen, and well proven also, by the fact that not a negro had been 
elected to either convention to protect the claim of his race.” Pol. 
Sci. Q. 18:480-96, S. ’03. 

This substantiates what I said in regard to Alabama, when that 
amendment was under discussion. But it is plainly brought out 
here that the reason for this wholesale disfranchisement of a race, 
as given by the “delegates” of these conventions, where no negro 
was elected to “protect the claims of his race,” seem to be “inferior¬ 
ity of the black man and his natural incapacity to perform political 
duties.” This is folly. What judge, except “Judge Lynch,” would 
condemn a man to be hanged without a hearing, or giving the man 
a chance to speak for his life? The King of Babylon told his dodg¬ 
ing magicians that they were set on lying. Some men can well set 


27 


themselves on lying against a people, when they know there will be 
few attempts made to speak back or answer them. 

Inferiority of the black man is one common issue of the South 
that needs to be “relegated to the limbo of forgotten issues.” I call 
it an issue because it is a common doctrine preached in the South; 
not only by the heartless politicians, who play on ignorant passion 
of negro-haters, but by the pulpit as well, fn what seems to be a 
rebuttal to ex-Congressman White, the editor of the Presbyterian 
Standard, Charlotte, N. C., asserted the “inferiority of the negro.” 
The assertion was backed up by feeling, but not by proof. It is 
facts that the nation and the world want in this day and time on 
the momentous race question. This man’s theory is that an illiterate 
white man is better than an illiterate negro. If a negro is a fool 
he is a fool—and if a white man is a fool he is a fool—a fool is but 
a fool, that settles it. To tell the world that there is a difference 
of blood may be pleasing to many, but he cannot eliminate from the 
blessed Book the writings of Paul, and still teach the whole truth. 

I might go on giving opinions of able writers and leading maga¬ 
zines, but the fact has been established that whatever their opinions 
were on some phase of these amendments, they are agreed on racial 
discrimination. And how any man can be doubtful about this is 
puzzling to me. 

The idea of Mr. Crumpacker should be insisted upon; and if 
Congress decides that these ignominious amendments shall stand, 
if Congress will go on record before the civilized world, as the Su¬ 
preme Court has done, sanctioning such mockery of justice, then 
let the Republican Congress also go on record as carrying out the 
pledge in its platform that called for reduction of Southern repre¬ 
sentation in Congress. We want Congress to treat us fairly and 
squarely. We want the nation to hear our humble appeal for plain 
justice. 

In speaking to the North Carolina Society, Mr. Taft makes the 
following statement: “Nor can we sympathize with an effort lo ex¬ 
clude from the support of Republicanism in the South or to read 
out of the party these colored voters who, by their education and 
thrift, have made themselves eligible to exercise the electoral fran¬ 
chise. We believe that the best friend that the Southern negro can. 
have is the Southern white man.” It seems that the President-elect 
has accepted the amendments as described to-night I have made 


28 


it very plain how Negro “education and thrift” made him eligible 
to vote according to the operation of these amendments. Yet I be¬ 
lieve Mr. Taft is too good a man to do such a thing of himself. 

Then I wonder if Mr. Taft would require the humblest man of an 
oppressed people to do what he himself does not have to do, in or¬ 
der to vote? On the 8th of last October Mr. Taft registered in Cin¬ 
cinnati, after the following queries and answers: “How old are 
you? Fifty-one. How many years have you lived in the State of 
Ohio? Fifty-one. How many years in the country? Fifty-one. 

How many years in the precinct? Twelve. Married? Yes.” I ask 
if Mr. Taft is willing to give the colored man the same opportunity 
to vote that he and other white men have? Is he willing to “square” 
the Southern amendments with the Fifteenth Amendment? I shall 
let Mr. Taft’s own words answer this important question. In speak¬ 
ing to the Republicans of West Virginia last October, he puts him¬ 
self squarely on record as being in favor of the colored man having 
the same right he himself had. He said: “I am advised that a very 
considerable part of your population is colored, and I want to say 
that no part of this population has a deeper sympathy on my part 
than they. Coming to this country, through their ancestry, against 
their will, there is imposed upon us, whose ancestry brought them 
here, the obligation to see that in every way they have a square deal. 

This is their only country; it is the only flag they love, and this is 
the standard for which they have shown themselves willing and 
anxious to lay down their lives when the exigencies of the country 
required. They are American citizens like the rest of us, and enti¬ 
tled to the same consideration.” 

Mr. Taft answers my question. He says that the colored man 
is entitled to the same “consideration” he himself is entitled to. 

When he went to register no “grandfathers’ clause” of ignoble crea¬ 
tion exempted him, neither, on the other hand, was he asked how 
much money he had, property he possessed, and nothing about his 
education. He was not required to read the Constitution of the 
United States, and straighten out, to the satisfaction of an ignoramus 
who does not want him to vote, the knotty technicalities thereof. 

He was not carried through the evaporating processes of Southern 
inglorious isms, through which the lone negro must pass. Nothing * 

was asked with a view to keep him from voting. The colored man 
wants the “same consideration.” Whether this was campaign fire, 


29 


or tried expressions of a great and generous heart, remains yet to 
be seen. 

Mr. Taft told the North Carolina Society that he believed that 
the best friend the Southern negro can have is the Southern white 
man. He is mistaken in his belief. There were some who believed 
that, when slavery was leaping through the gates of Missouri Com¬ 
promise line. There were some who believed that when the slave 
drivers were pitching their tents toward the gold-fields of California. 
Some believed it when the Fugitive Slave Act was adopted, and 
weeping men and women sent back at the expense of the govern¬ 
ment from freedom’s shore to slavery and indescribable torture. 
Some believed it when Fort Sumter was fired upon and secession’s 
flag unfurled in rebellion to the nation. But let us thank God that 
there were men who believed with a clearer conception. And let us 
thank Him that there are men to-day such as that matchless cham¬ 
pion of human rights, and one of the grandest of American states¬ 
men, Joseph B. Foraker. Men who do not believe that a people, 
who long for the repeal of the Fifteenth Amendment; a people who 
assault our women, lynch our men and make our race travel in bag¬ 
gage cars, without food, is our best friend. 

Finally, fellow citizens, “let the wicked forsake his way, and 
the unrighteous man his thoughts,” and let him return to the Fed¬ 
eral Constitution. Let there be a common ground for every voter 
to stand on—that is all we want. 

In the late campaign Mr. Bryan asked, “Shall the people rule?” 
I doubt not the honesty of Mr. Bryan; I know he is well informed; 
he could not hope to be elected without the South. But how he 
could stand, with one foot on the amendments of the South and the 
other on Northern Democracy, and ask that question, I cannot un¬ 
derstand. That question belongs to the scions of Lincoln. It is 
equivalent to Lincoln’s “appeal to the people.” The War President 
knew the people would rule and he wanted them to rule rightly. He 
believed that when the true light should burst upon the American 
people they would rule. The people ruled when Babylon fell. They 
ruled at Waterloo. They ruled forty-six years ago, when the Eman¬ 
cipation Proclamation burst the foundations of slavery and her king¬ 
dom fell. They ruled when the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fif¬ 
teenth Amendments were placed on the Statute Books, to stay till 
Gabriel’s trump shall shake the hills. They shall rule again when 


30 


the triune-like North, East and West shall call order out of a con¬ 
fused South. 

So be hopeful, my brethren of the South, and cease not to fight. 
Fight for manhood rights. Fight for a square deal. Fight till the 
fall of the present amendments of the South. Fight till the whole 
nation can truly sing: — 

“Our fathers’ God, to thee, 

Author of liberty, 

To thee we sing: 

Long may our land be bright 

With freedom’s holy light; 

Protect us by thy might, 

Great God, our King.’’ 


“Finis.” 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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